


Beauty and the Beast

by vanillalime



Category: Oz (TV)
Genre: Babysitting, Community: oz_magi, Gen, Humor, Oz Magi's Party in the Dress Factory, Post-Series, some flirting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-18
Updated: 2018-01-18
Packaged: 2019-03-06 12:22:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13411176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanillalime/pseuds/vanillalime
Summary: Sean babysits Claire's 2-year-old daughter.





	Beauty and the Beast

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cmk418](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cmk418/gifts).



> Originally posted to LiveJournal in December 2017. Written in response to a prompt for Oz Magi by cmk418. The request:
> 
> Pairing/Character(s): Claire Howell, Sean Murphy   
> Keyword/Prompt Phrase: Sean loses a bet and has to babysit Claire’s two-year-old for a night  
> Canon/AU/Either: AU  
> Special Requests: Humor. If the muses take you in a Claire/Murphy direction, I would not be opposed to that.  
> Story/Art/Either: Story

Sean parked his car and, dragging his feet, made his way toward the door to Claire's apartment. He just couldn’t believe he’d been so stupid. If only he hadn’t been so arrogant. But he’d been absolutely, 100% positive that he was right.

Sean shook his head. How the hell did Claire know so much about Super Bowl MVPs, anyway?

He rang the doorbell. Seconds later, Claire opened the door, and Sean's mouth nearly dropped open. Claire was wearing make-up, a frilly blouse, and... jewelry? He'd never even noticed before that her ears were pierced. 

She actually looked... pretty. Although Sean knew better than to tell her that.

"Hey, Murph, c'mon in."

Sean shuffled inside, and Claire closed the door behind him. They walked into the living room together, and she pointed in the direction of the sofa. 

"This is Emma. Emma, this is Murph. Can you say hi?"

Sean saw two eyes peeking over the top of the sofa. A hand waved in the air, and a small voice called out, "Hi!"

"Uh, hi."

"Okay, listen up. Here's the phone number of the restaurant this guy is taking me to."

"Uh-huh."

"And this is the movie theater we're going to afterwards."

"Uh-huh."

"Emma's mostly potty-trained... "

_Mostly?_

"... but in case she has an accident, you can clean her up with this."

"Okay."

"She's going through a big _Beauty and the Beast_ phase. You can put the movie on when I leave, and it'll probably keep her occupied for the next hour or so."

"Uh-huh."

"After that, you could read some books to her or put some puzzles together or, I don't know, maybe teach her to dance the hula."

"Uh-huh."

"Murph, you ARE paying attention to these instructions, aren't you?"

"Yes!"

"Emma's already eaten dinner, but she's allowed one snack before bedtime. Here is the list of approved snacks you can give her."

"Uh-huh."

"Bedtime is 8:30, on the dot. Don't let her talk you into letting her stay up any later than that."

"Okay."

"All right, Emma, give Mommy a kiss good-night. Murph, I'll see you in a few hours."

Then Claire was gone. Sean sat down on the sofa and stared at Emma, who sat there and stared back at him.

"Sooooo, let's watch _Beauty and the Beast_ ," Sean suggested. He got up and put the movie in. Then he sat back down next to Emma and tried to relax. Really, how hard could this be?

Less than ten minutes into the movie, Emma turned to face him. She looked Sean directly in the eye, and what she proceeded to say was more terrifying than anything he'd heard out of the most hardened criminal at Oz:

"This is boring. I want to play dress-up instead."

****  
An hour and a half later, Claire walked back into her apartment. She headed straight to the living room and was slightly alarmed when she saw that it was empty. Then she heard the voices coming from Emma's bedroom.

She quietly made her way down the hall, looked inside, and nearly fell over.

Emma was sitting at her play table, dressed in her yellow Belle ballroom gown. Sean sat on a tiny chair across from her, a sparkly tiara on his head and a purple feather boa wrapped around his neck. He was pretend-drinking from a tiny, plastic teacup, pinky finger stuck out in the air, while Emma poured a cup for herself from the teapot.

"If only I had my camera," Claire quietly declared.

Sean stood up so quickly, his chair fell over. "What're doin' home so early?" he cried in horror.

"My date was a loser, so I bailed on the movie," Claire explained. With a grin, she looked him up and down. "Do I even want to know what you're doing?"

Red-faced, Sean quickly pulled off his tiara and the boa. "We were playing Beauty and the Beast," he explained, "and things got complicated."

Claire started to laugh. "It looks like you're a more entertaining date than the guy I just dumped."

"Yeah, well, ya'know... " stammered Sean, clearly flustered. "I was easily persuaded by Emma. She can be pretty charming."

"On the contrary, it looks like you are the charming one here," Claire said. "Prince Charming, to be exact."

Sean just stood there, struck dumb.

"Well, you're free to go," Claire told him with a wave of her hand. "I think I'm just going to kick back and watch _Sunday Night Football._ The Jets are playing the Bills tonight."

Sean blinked. "That should be good game."

The two of them stood there, staring at each. Finally, Claire cleared her throat and said, "You wanna stick around and watch it with me? I got some beer in fridge. Chips in the cupboard."

Sean grinned. "Actually, that sounds pretty great." He paused, then said, "I'll help you get Emma to bed first. If I remember correctly, her bedtime is 8:30, on the dot?"

"Yeah, it is," replied Claire. With a smile that seemed almost shy, she added, "And she's a heavy sleeper, too."


End file.
